Czech President Milos Zeman has slammed Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, calling him “a prime minister of war” because he is unwilling to peacefully solve the civil conflict in the country.

"From the statements byPM Yatsenyuk, I think that he is a
‘prime minister of war’, because he does not want a peaceful
solution to the crisis [in Ukraine] recommended by the European
Commission,” Zeman told Pravo, a Czech daily newspaper.

Yatsenyuk wants to solve Ukrainian conflict “by the use of
force," added the Czech leader.

According to Zeman, the current policy of Kiev authorities has
two “faces.” The first is the “face” of the
country’s president, Petro Poroshenko, who “may be a man of
peace.”

The second “face” is that of PM Yatsenyuk, who has an
uncompromising position toward self-defense forces in Eastern
Ukraine.

Zeman said he doesn’t’ believe that the February coup, during
which then-President Viktor Yanukovich was deposed from power,
was a democratic revolution at all.

"Maidan was not a democratic revolution, and I believe that
Ukraine is in a state of civil war,” Zeman said, responding
to what he described as "poorly informed people" who
compared Maidan with Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution in 1989.

In November 2013, the initially peaceful demonstrations which
started as a reaction to then-President Viktor Yanukovich’s
refusal to sign the EU association deal became violent in early
2014.

Kiev’s central Independence Square - Maidan Nezalezhnosty - was
turned into a battlefield as Ukrainian protesters clashed with
police through January and February.

The unrest resulted in a coup that toppled Yanukovich and his
government in February.

The Republic of Crimea’s withdrawal from Ukraine was followed by
a conflict in the country’s southeast.

According to UN figures, at least 4,317 people have been killed
and 9,921 wounded in the conflict in eastern Ukraine since April
when Kiev authorities launched a so-called anti-terrorist
operation in the region.